FLORENCE... plus the countryside

PART ONE If Venice tends to be busy, then Florence is hardly a deserted backwater. The Tuscan capital leads the region with a grandeur that has endured for half a millennium. In essence, it remains a city of the 15th and 16th centuries, the Uffizi (uffizi.it) stuffed with work by Botticelli and Raphael, another Accademia (accademia.org) serving as the home of Michelangelo’s David, the Ponte Vecchio still spanning the Arno with a medieval sigh.

ESSENTIAL SIGHT The Duomo (duomofirenze.it) – which may well be the world’s greatest cathedral, with its colossal octagonal dome – and Giotto’s Campanile belltower as its close companion. That most of the structure pre-dates the Renaissance only adds to its wonder.

PART TWO It is not hard to slip out of Florence – a city of barely more than 350,000 souls; only Italy’s eighth largest – and into the wider countryside. Rural Tuscany swoons with vineyards, olive groves and day-dreaming hilltop towns. But then, you already know this.

DON’T MISS San Gimignano, perhaps the foremost of these citadels – its Unesco-listed towers rising politely above the landscape, vernaccia grapes thriving on the slopes below.

DO IT Belmond (0845 077 2222; belmond.com) offers a five-day Town & Country break that splits its time evenly – two nights at Villa San Michele in Florence; two at Castello di Casole, a rustic estate, 20 miles from San Gimignano. From £1,685 per person (flights extra).